Physical systems, examples of which include fluid systems of engines, are typically modeled to predict selected physical variables, such as mass flow rates, pressures, temperatures, and two-phase mixtures quality, for physical components of the systems. Such physical systems may be large and complex and require modeling of multi-domain physical processes (e.g. flow, thermal, mechanical, electrical, control . . . ).
Graphical computer modeling environments and tools are typically used to allow users to build models of physical systems as networks of connected blocks. However, using conventional graphical modeling environments, additional ports generally need to be implemented to build multi-domain blocks. For instance, in order to enable a hydraulic restrictor having two flow ports to provide heat transfer to other blocks in the model, at least one additional port would need to be created for the restrictor block. Creating additional connection ports and connection lines for multi-domain connection has the drawback of yielding complex graphical networks, which are difficult to create, read, check, and modify and become unmanageable for large physical systems. This becomes even more problematic when there is a need to model physical systems comprising multi-domain blocks that are located at a great distance from one another or in different subsystems.
There is therefore a need for an improved system and method for graphical modeling of physical systems.